Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A particular small North American owl.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • A screech-owl rises up from a gnarled pine by the roadside.

    The Lady Matador’s Hotel Cristina García 2010

  • Birds of prey include the western screech-owl, Cooper's hawk, northern pygmy-owl, and great gray owl.

    Sierran Steppe - Mixed Forest - Coniferous Forest - Alpine Meadow Province (Bailey) 2009

  • His voice, too, sounded like that of a screech-owl, as he said,

    Redgauntlet 2008

  • “Peace, screech-owl!” answered Middlemas, “nor drive me to such madness as may lead me to forget thou art a woman.”

    The Surgeon's Daughter 2008

  • Here her leathern chops uttered a sort of cackling, ghastly laugh, resembling, to a certain degree, the cry of the screech-owl.

    The Bride of Lammermoor 2008

  • Restricted-range birds in this ecoregion include the Santa Barbara screech-owl (Otus barbarus), belted flycatcher (Xenotriccus callizonus), pink-heade warbler (Ergaticus versicolor), and black-capped siskin (Carduelis atriceps) classified as near threatened.

    Central American pine-oak forests 2007

  • Janet had never before heard her father excite or even permit her attention to anything which passed in their mysterious family; and now that he did so, his voice sounded in her ear — she knew not why — like that of a screech-owl denouncing some deed of terror and of woe.

    Kenilworth 2004

  • What have my screech-owl voice, my hideous form, and my mis-shapen features, to do with the fairer workmanship of nature?

    The Black Dwarf 2004

  • His laugh is said to have been quite horrible; and his screech-owl voice, shrill, uncouth, and dissonant, corresponded well with his other peculiarities.

    The Black Dwarf 2004

  • The debauched misery, the wretched outdoor midnight revelry of the world was there, streaming in and out from gin-palaces, and bawling itself hoarse with horrid, discordant, screech-owl slang.

    The Three Clerks 2004

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